Ground Squirrel Rescue

Being on the farm means a variety animal rescue stories over the years, from the tiny kitten we pulled cold, drenched and desperately swimming from a rain barrel to the goat my husband saved from wild dogs -- waking from a dead sleep and running down the stairs and out to the barn au natural - stopping only to grab the rifle, moccasins and a hat.

Today's strange encounter involved a ground squirrel and two of our outside cats. The cats were tracking something in the grass and when I went to investigate, there was a ground squirrel with a wet looking patch on its back. It must have been caught and then released by one of the cats and now two were on its trail. I went into rescue mode -trying to push back the cats so the ground squirrel could get away. But it only moved 4 or 5 inches at a time, then crouched down and hid in the grass, very cautiously trying to sneak away. Of course everytime it moved, the cats saw it and made a grab for it. I could easily have caught the ground squirrel myself, it was so scared, and carried it to safety but I didn't have gloves with me and was afraid if I ran to get them, by the time I got back it would be too late. After many rescues, one learns to use protective gear, its just fun not to get scratched, bitten or gored by the subject of an intended good deed.

Now the little guy is only a foot away from a walnut tree and safety, but then it turns as if to face its pursurers - and appears to be considering a full attack on me, the would be rescuer. After a couple of shoos and hand flutters in its direction, I freeze, watching as the ground squirrel creeps hesitantly up to my leg where he sits up and tentatively sniffs it. Then slowly as though scaling a treacherous, unfamilar mountain, it begins to climb. I move carefully over to the walnut tree but the squirrel is intent on continuing its climb up my leg and ignores the tree. Don't bite me, please don't bite I keep saying in what I hope is a soothing voice to a ground squirrel. I lean on the walnut, getting as close as I can to the tree trunk, but still the squirrel climbs and climbs until finally he is almost to my shoulder and then he suddenly turns, grabs a hold of the tree and races up and out of sight.

A new first for me - I have never been climbed before by a wild animal.

Cooking Interruptus

When it comes to cooking shows and recipes, I look for ideas, not actual how to's --a new combination of ingredients, flavors and methods that I can try using what I like or have on hand. So I don't watch cooking shows - takes too long much time to find the treasure buried in there somewhere - that is I didn't watch until I discovered Cookus Interrupus, a series of short videos on making natural and organic cuisine. I love the "at home in a real kitchen" take of the videos and of course, watching to see the interruption of the day. Cooking as entertainment ....

Spicy Plum Sauce

Speaking of harvest season, I want to share the plum sauce recipe I recently made. First the plums - they are what we locally call Bohemia plums. I don't know the origin but the way one gets them is from someone else who has a tree - either planting the fruits or digging up a little, nearby tree. The fruit is a small blue plum, very sweet and soft when fully ripe with no trace of bitterness in the skin like many other plums. To eat, you pop the whole plum in your mouth and mush out the pit with your tongue.

I grew up with these plums and have only recently acquired some trees. While my trees only a few fruits, my mom's trees were loaded this year thus the need to make the plum sauce. I looked for some recipes for plum sauces and used them to create my own spicy version for use on egg rolls, duck, stir-frys and to use when grilling.

Recipe
Place 2 quarts washed and pitted plums in a heavy kettle and turn on low heat.

As the plums are heating prepare and add vegetables to the pot:
1 cup chopped red sweet pepper
3 large jalapenos, chopped (you can leave in seeds if you want to avoid handling)

1 medium size garlic bulk separated into cloves and chopped



Then add:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1 cup brown rice syrup (or you could substitue other liquid sweetener such as honey or maple syrup)

1/3 cup tamari

1 cup molasses

6 oz jar of chopped pickled (sushi) ginger
Cook, covered, on low heat, stirring often to prevent sticking, until everything is very soft.
Process in food processor until a smooth sauce-like consistancy.

Return to low heat and add 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder.

The recipe yields about 5 pints of sauce which can be stored in the refrigerator, frozen or canned.

Vegetable Onion Bread and Spicy Tomato Juice

Its been awhile since my last post- but as you those of you who take foods directly from the earth to the pantry know - this is the time of reaping.

When I am in the middle of piles of peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, basil, eggplants and squash of all types with a frosty night just waiting to jump out at me, I shold be focusing on the task at hand but it seems these are the times when urges for creating new concoctions using canning jars, heat and fresh produce just have to be acted upon.

Yesterday we made what we call "hot juice" aka on stores shelves, V8, vegetable juice or fusion something or other. Like most things, hot juice or more accurately spicy vegetable tomato juice came about 3 or 4 years ago when I was still faced with lots of peppers, tomatoes and onions to use up. We use an electric roaster, fill it about 3/4 full of tomatoes and then the rest of the way to the top (and then some) with sweet red and green peppers, onion, hot peppers, carrots, celery, a head of garlic, beets when I have them (not this year) and a healthy shot of lemon juice and a tablespoon of salt. After all is nice and mushy-soft, we run the concoction through a food mill to get out all the juice which we heat, hot-pack and can. But this year I look at the leftover mound of vegetable gunk - a pile of many color bits and stands of dejuiced vegetables and thought this is all the good veggie fiber we just toss to the chickens. Surely there must be something I can use it for I thought as I started to put together a loaf of bread in the bread machine. An aha moment turned into a really moist, tasty loaf of wheat bread.

Recipe - I followed my basic whole wheat bread recipe and added 1/2 cup of the vegetable leavings to the machine and 1/4 cup of toasted onion flakes and as it kneaded I checked the dough and decided it was a little too moist and added maybe another 1/4 cup of flour. The bread tastes good and looks nice with its little flecks of color.

Note: Toasted onion flakes are the onion that is used to make French onion dip. I buy these flakes by the pound from frontiercoop.com (for full disclosure I should say I work there, but I also know the cool bulk products). I have never seen these anywhere else. Anyway I like to had a quarter up to a half cup (for a really oniony flavor) with an egg to my favorite whole wheat bread recipe. Make a good sandwich bread and fabulous toast.